A Little Girl and Her Snowman, 1973

Wedding Gift of the Artist to the present Private Collection, 1973

Wiliam Kurelek, "A Prairie Boy’s Winter", Toronto, 1973, unpaginated

Born on a farm near Willingdon, Alberta in 1927, William Kurelek created paintings that explored the reality of farm life during the Depression. In the book, A Prairie Boy’s Winter by William Kurelek, the artist dedicates the book to “everyone who ever spent a winter on the prairies - and for all the others who wonder what it was like”. Published in 1973, the same year he created "A Little Girl and Her Snowman", Kurelek chronicles the advent of the first snowfall until the end of winter. Images depict children playing games in the snow and enjoying winter in the vast expanse of the prairie landscape. Gifted by the artist to the owners for their wedding, Kurelek inscribed on the back of this painting his intent to express “that endearing quality children have of investing inanimate things with life”. A small child wrapped in a warm winter snowsuit pulls a snowman on a bright red sleigh in the snowy landscape. The child and snowman are both smiling as they enjoy the bright, beautiful winter day.